Equilibrium (26 page)

Ariele interrupted. “
A
, we do need to talk. Kellan, no offense, but could you allow us some girl time?”

“Yeah, no worries,” he smiled. See you guys later,” he said, and walked off with a wave.

“Let’s go over to your house, Arizona. My mom’s being way too nosey at the moment,” Ariele said, rolling her eyes. “So did you see your Dad?”

I started the Jeep and nodded. “It was the weirdest thing. You know, waking back up in Princeton, at
home
.”

“Tell me everything, Arizona! How did your Dad react? Did you tell him about this whole time-travel stuff?”

“To tell you the truth, Ariele, I barely saw him. I caught a glimpse of him when I first woke up. He was on his way out. Then, I didn’t see him again. He went to AC.”

“Typical,” Ariele said, shaking her head. “Did you call him?”

“I tried, but he wasn’t picking up. Too busy, I guess.”

“So, he doesn’t know anything?” she asked astounded.

“Nope.”

“Didn’t he notice your new hair do?”

“No. In his defense, I was in bed. It’s not like we had breakfast or anything together. We do our own thing. You know that,” I sighed.

“So, what did you
do
?” she persisted.

“Nothing. I went to school.”

“To
school
! You’ve got to be kidding me!”

I shook my head. It wasn’t
that
strange, was it?

“You went to school, as if nothing had happened? In your new Barbie do? Really, Arizona, really?”

“I guess when you put it like that, it’s a bit strange,” I conceded.

“A bit strange? It’s totally ludicrous!” she exclaimed.

“I guess…” I mumbled. “But what was I supposed to do? I woke up at home, in my own bed, on a school day. Monica came to pick me up as usual. I didn’t go to school that first morning…I did the next day though,” I justified.

“You saw
M
?” she asked.

“Of course, I did! And Christian, Nick and the rest of them. I mean, they’re all there, getting on with their lives.”

“Didn’t they notice that you’d been gone?” Ariele wondered.

“I really wasn’t
gone
. Well, apart from that Sunday. I was thinking about going away to that girl’s hockey camp at the weekend, remember? I guess everyone assumed I had. And I didn’t miss any school apart from that one Monday, and Monica called in sick for me. So, I wasn’t really
gone
.”

“What about your blond hair? How did you explain that away?”

“I didn’t. That’s the good thing about being Arizona Stevens. No one ever asks
me
to
explain
anything.”

Ariele laughed, “So true. Still, you must have had some weird looks and some snide comments.”

“Yup, but I just ignored them,” I shrugged.

“What about Monica? I’m sure she didn’t just let your new look slide!” Ariele frowned.

“Stop that, you’ll get wrinkles,” I teased. “No she didn’t let it
slide
. What I haven’t told you is that I gave in to total misery when I found myself alone. Almost pulled a Bella Swan, sheesh! Once Dad left and I was by myself, I felt painfully alone. I don’t know
why
. I mean I’m, or
was
, always by myself. I liked it! Now, after a short stint as a Darley, I seemed to have gotten used to always being around others–and hugs.” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, I felt so alone... abandoned.”

I stopped talking as we arrived at the house. I noticed Mom’s Hummer and Rupert’s bike parked outside. I wasn’t quite ready to go inside. Ariele and I needed more alone time.

“Let’s go over to the woods and walk for a while,” I suggested to Ariele. “It looks busy in there.”

“So, you said you felt abandoned?” Ariele prompted.

“Yeah. The feeling was so strong and intense that I turned into mush, crying, even
weeping
,” I whispered, ashamed to admit it aloud. “Anyhow, that’s how Monica found me, a mess. So, wondering about my Barbie-do was not a priority for her, I guess. She did ask me about it later, though–repeatedly–but I was vague and she didn’t push.”

Ariele stopped and looked at me. “Arizona,
who
are you? Weepy? I’m really worried about you.”

I shoved her. “I’m okay! It was a temporary loss of control. I’m not sure why I reacted like that.”

“All right, no need to prove yourself,” she said, rubbing her shoulder. “That hurt!”

I rolled my eyes at her.

“You know, I bet I know the real reason why you were so miserable,” she said slyly.

“And what’s that,” I asked, waiting for it.

“Arizona and Kellan, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I,” she began.

And she was down! My fist hit her shoulder with a thump; I hoped that I hadn’t caused permanent damage.

“Sheesh,
A
! That’s twice. Do it again and you’re toast!” she warned.

I wondered if she was right. Had Kellan been responsible for my miserable loneliness? If so, that was beyond pathetic. “Hit me!” I said, looking at Ariele.

“Love to,” she said and got me right in my belly. I was down. “That better?” she asked, sitting down beside me.

“Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that I haven’t turned into a wimp.”

“Nah, you’re fine. A wimp would be in tears after that,” she reassured me.

“What’s going on here?” a stern voice asked, coming through the trees.

“Nothing,” I said. “Who’re you?”

It turned out there were two of them. Ariele and I were both ready to run.

“Agents Dwyer and Kent,” Bart Dwyer responded curtly. “What’s going on? Are you okay, Miss Darley?”

“Oh, I’m fine. This is my best friend, Ariele. We’re just hanging out, having fun,” I said.

“Looked like you were punching each other,” Agent Dwyer pointed out.

“Just play punches, that’s all. Nothing serious,” I replied. “Can we carry on now?”

“Yes, but don’t go any further into the woods. And try not to hurt each other.”

I nodded and pulled Ariele along with me, away from them. When they were safely out of earshot, I sat down on the grass and pulled Ariele down beside me. “Right, where were we?”

“Is your house being watched?” she asked, ignoring me. “Why?”

“To keep us
safe
, I guess.”

“Safe from what?” Ariele muttered. “Simla’s dad’s over in the other dimension, right? He can’t do you any harm.”

“True, but we could hardly tell the FBI that. Could we?” I chuckled. “So they’ll protect us until
they’re
happy we’re safe.”

“Oh, that’s a nuisance,” Ariele sighed.

“No kidding!”

“Anyway, tell me more,” she continued. “From what Mom told me, you and Kellan were taken from the lake?”

“Yes, we headed out there after the fiasco of a talk at Ames, right after we’d spent some time at the rink slamming pucks.”

“Romantic interlude?” she giggled.

“Nuff, or I’ll hit you again and then we’ll have those two babysitters checking up on us! Anyway, call it what you want. We wanted some alone time, to think mostly.”

She rolled her eyes and I pinched her.

“So, we were lying there by the lake, talking, and it suddenly all went dark, we blacked out.”

“How? Did you both get hit at the same time?” she asked.

“Sort of,” I replied cagily.

“What do you mean
sort of
? Come on, tell me, I need a visual,” she pried. “I just don’t buy that you didn’t see what happened, you’re not blind. Did you guys fall asleep?”

“Kellan was on top of me, just kissing, nothing else,” I assured her hastily, before she got inappropriately disgusting images floating about in her over-imaginative head. “We think that someone hit him on the back of the head, forcing it to thump down onto mine and we both blacked out.”

“Oh crap,” she said.

“To put it mildly. The next thing I remember is that we woke up in this dark room, pitch black. Couldn’t see a thing. I’m going to skip all the details ‘cause we really have to get back soon. Someone grabbed me from that room and the next thing I knew was that I was home in Princeton.”

“Wow, that must have been mind blowing!” she mused. “I guess Dr. Sen transported you through the portal?”

“I guess, I don’t know for sure, though.”

“What about Ella and Harry? Did they come through the portal?”

“I guess. They were dumped in my bed!”

“In your bed at your house – wow….”

I nodded.

“So, how did you explain your other life to them?”

“I didn’t,” I replied. “It was dark. Dad wasn’t home. We weren’t there long, so I didn’t need to. Good that Dad’s been too lazy to decorate the house; we don’t even have any pictures up or photos out.”

 “So, Harry doesn’t know?” she marveled. “Does he know about the portal?”

“Yeah, we had to explain all that to him.”

“
We
? Who?”

 “Me, Kevin, David and Kellan,” I replied with a grin. I had to end this conversation soon. I had to get back to the house. I knew Mom wanted to talk to me and I had to get ready for the game.

“Tell me you’re kidding! How did Kellan and David get there? I didn’t even know that David had gone missing. And who’s Kevin?”

“Kevin is David’s dad. David transported Kellan across,” I said, waiting for the obvious question.

“How? Through the portal, of course, I get that. But, how did they manage to do that? Mom told me that the portal is inactive at the moment,” she said.

“No, Ariele. Not through the portal,” I said, taking a deep breath. “David is a
Wanderer
.”

“A
Wanderer
?” she gaped.

“Wanderers are beings who can traverse dimensions and time,” I said, trying not to laugh.

“You’re such an idiot, Arizona!”

“I knew you were going to say that! Don’t mention
Wanderers
to anyone, you’ll get locked-up by the men-in-white-coats. Anyhow, I’ve got to get home. We’ll have to talk more later. Mom’s waiting to have a chat with me.”

“Geez, that should be fun,” Ariele teased.

I rolled my eyes and walked home to face Mom.

O
livia lay back on the couch, resting her head on the cushion draped over the arm. Her legs rested on Rupert’s lap, her feet enjoying a luxurious massage. Rupert gave the best foot rubs. She closed her eyes and tried to relax, but failed miserably. It was only ten in the morning, yet she felt totally shattered. She wondered how the kids were coping with school. They had just arrived back from dropping Ella off, leaving firm instructions with the principal to call them if she seemed tired and needed to be picked up early. Ella seemed excited to see her classmates, rushing in and hugging her two best friends, Jonas and Sally. Olivia had left Ella happily chattering away with them.

Olivia was alone, at last, with Rupert. She needed some time to think before Arizona came back home. It was time for them to have their long overdue conversation. Olivia wasn’t looking forward to it at all, but it had to happen. There was no way to delay or even avoid it any more. There was really no reason to. Arizona had been exposed to it all–time travel, parallel dimensions, even Wanderers.

Wanderers!
How could she expect Arizona to grasp such a concept when Olivia wasn’t quite sure she believed it herself? Surely there was some kind of misunderstanding. A being that could traverse time and dimensions without scientific aid–that just wasn’t possible, was it? Larry seemed firm about their existence and she trusted implicitly both his sanity and his scientific acumen.
Wanderers
–it was a paranormal concept and Olivia had never believed in the paranormal. It was more than she could or wanted to get her head around.

From what she had gathered, Inez and David claimed to be such beings. Ella claimed that David had
sucked her through an invisible wall
, that’s how she’d described it again and again. It had only taken a moment. Could Ella have dreamed it? It seemed unlikely; she recounted the story with consistency. However, she had been sleepy, the sedatives that drugged her were still in her system. In fact, they were only now starting to wear off. Additionally, Kellan claimed that David had taken him across to Arizona. And to top it all, Harry and Arizona recounted the same story about their journey home. How was this possible? Even if she accepted that Wanderers existed, how did they do it? No, there must be another explanation. But, what? And why was everyone making up this strange tale?

“What are you thinking about, Ollie?” Rupert asked, looking at Olivia’s furrowed brows.

“Wanderers,” she replied, opening her eyes and gazing into his.

“You can’t get your head around it, can you?” he observed.

“No. And I trust you can’t either. I mean, it’s a completely unbelievable notion, isn’t it?”

Rupert sighed, and let go of her feet, pulling Olivia up to sit closer to him.

“Come here,” he said, enveloping her in his arms. “You think the kids are making it up?”

“I don’t know, Rup. Maybe not
making it up
as much as believing in something that’s just not true. They were drugged. Maybe they were brainwashed somehow.”